– Creaks, dogs, knives: The admission control officers in the Palace of Justice come across the strangest finds when they look through the visitors' luggage. But that's not the only thing the sergeants care about.
Hundreds of people enter the Nuremberg Palace of Justice in the northwest of the city every day. There is an entry control so that visitors do not take any dangerous items into the building. In addition to pocket knives and nail scissors, officers often come across bizarre souvenirs.
For our Advent calendar of the true crime podcast “Abysses,” we look behind an otherwise closed door at the police and justice system every day in 24 episodes. The current episode is about Beate Heinrich and Stefan Reiderer, who carry out the security check in the foyer of the Palace of Justice.
The checkpoints have existed throughout Germany since 2012. After a young public prosecutor in Dachau was shot by the defendants in the courtroom during a trial, identity checks were introduced nationwide.
Controls were also tightened in Nuremberg. Two constables and a security employee check the visitors and all their luggage. Similar to at the airport, guests pass through a metal detector and their bags are X-rayed.
In their everyday lives, the officers see all sorts of things: once a man wanted to pull a three-meter-long tree trunk into the building, a woman had sex toys in her handbag and another visitor tried to smuggle her dog into the courtroom in her luggage. The animal was only noticed when the bag was x-rayed.
The two of them tell you in the new episode of our Abyss Advent calendar which officers still have at the entrance control and what memorable encounters Heinrich and Reider had.
